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Help:Japanese Names
Let your hearts ripen with happiness! Hello there, welcome to Pretty Cure Haven. We're Cure Passion and Cure Scarlet. You appear to be having trouble creating convincing Japanese names for your characters, but don't worry, we're here to help you as we went through the same thing. So follow us as we do our best to teach you the perfect way to create Japanese names! How to format names "Setsuna-san, when it comes to writing names, I get a little confused on how to format them..." - Towa Ah, Towa don't we all? Well for starters, Japanese names are always written with the surname first and the first name second. Pretty easy to remember but it can get confusing if you're a foreigner. If your name is foreign, then you don't follow the Japanese way of structuring your name. You stick to first name first and surname second, in other words, the Western way. Easy peesy don't you think? It is okay if you wish to write a Japanese name the Western way however there are some rules you must follow and if you break them, it makes your name look made up. When to use hiragana, katakana and kanji "Towa-chan, how about you talk about this one?" - Setsuna Ah, can I? Thank you very much! Well, this can get a little confusing so, Japan has three different writing styles and they are all used for different purposes. Hiragana is for pretty much anything except for one thing. But I'll get back to that one thing in a little bit. Katakana is for foreign words only. Sometimes Japan will use katakana to make the Japanese word look fancier or cooler but other than that exception, it's really only for foreign words. And last but not least, is Kanji. You could say Kanji is the same as those difficult English words that you just can't remember how to spell and are very important in your day to day to life and you really need to learn and know them otherwise, you're not going to do very well when you get older. So after getting through understanding what the three writing styles are used for, let's get back to names, shall we! Hiragana, katakana and kanji in names Remember how Towa stated Hiragana has one thing it is never used for? Well I'll address that now for you. Hiragana is never, ever used to write a surname. The only time you might see a Japanese surname written in hiragana is if it's a stage name. It is never used for your actual surname. Surnames must always be written in Kanji. And if your surname is not written in Kanji, that must mean you are a foreigner and your whole name is written in katakana. That said, hiragana, katakana and kanji can all be used for first names. This is really only when you can use hiragana in a name. Once again remember how Towa said katakana is sometimes used to make a name look fancier and/or cooler? Well, many Japanese parents may write their child's name in katakana for that sole purpose or possibly because that child is half Japanese. This rarely happens and you'll mostly see Japanese first names written in kanji or hiragana. Kanji is more likely to be seen than hiragana but you will most likely see more hiragana first names in anime or manga compared to real life, where you see more Kanji first names. Recap As this is a lot to take in, before we move on to how to create your own Japanese name, we'll give you a quick recap. *Japanese names are always formatted as surname first and first name second: Higashi Setsuna (東せつな) *Western names written in Japanese are formatted the Western way: Brain Taylor (ブライアン・テイラー) *Kanji, hiragana and katakana can all be used to write first names: Kanade (奏), Miyuki (みゆき), Towa (トワ). *Hiragana is never used to write surnames, only Kanji is used to write surnames, and katakana for foreign surnames. Special Naming Corner Now for the part we've all be waiting for and that is how to name your OC properly so they actually seem a little more realistic. Before Setsuna-san explains that to you, I'll give you same more information that I hope doesn't bore you. Most civilian names of the Cures actually refer to something related to them as Cures. Take Hanasaki Tsubomi (花咲つぼみ) for example. Pretty much her whole name represents who she is as a person and as a Cure. Her whole name means "Blooming flower bud". Throughout her season, she started out as a bud but then blossomed into a beautiful, strong flower. "Saki" can also mean "Blossom", which as you can already guess, Tsubomi is known as Cure Blossom as a Cure and to top it all off, the name still sounds natural and realistic. There are times when Cure's names will not match up with who they are as Cures. Omori Yuko (大森ゆうこ) is one of these examples. Her whole name means "great fertile forest". As you can tell, this name has nothing to do with her as Cure Honey. On the outside it doesn't anyway. You just gotta look deeper into it and realise, maybe it does. But we won't be looking into analysing names today. Before this gets anymore boring, Setsuna-san take it away! Name Creating Corner Alright time to do my best! There are many sites that can help you with creating names. This tutorial will mostly focus on surnames as they seem to be the most interesting parts when it comes to looking at OC names. Usually surnames are two kanji characters combined together with their own special meanings. Sometimes there can be three kanji characters, and other times, there can be just one. Most surnames I have noticed here are very well structured and seem very realistic, common and natural. However there are some that seem a little odd. Now I will not say names or mention those surnames in question because no one likes being embarrassed do we? So I'll just use an example that I've made up on the spot: I'm going for a OC who's theme color is red and she is based off angels. I want to represent both these facts and so I pick, Akatenshi (赤天使), which means "red angel". Is it a real surname though? No. No one in Japan would have a surname that just stuck the words "red" and "angel" together. Instead, I could do more research and try to find a better name that could come off as real and natural. Instead of trying to combine both words for my OC's surname, I could instead pick "Amachi" (天知) for her surname and then pick a first name that means red like Akane (茜). Another example of obviously made up surnames is when you just have no idea what you're doing and you pick a name that you know means "star palace" (which should be written as "Hoshi-miya" 星宮) but ends up meaning "seeing the starry store" because you wrote down the wrong kanji (Hoshi-mi-ya 星見屋) as you have no idea what kanji actually means what or what they're supposed to look like. So see below to actually get over this little hurdle. Beginner's Guide Below is a link for you all to click on if you are still struggling with creating perfect surnames because of either a) you don't know kanji well so you just pick random kanji and hope for the best, or b) you still don't understand what you're doing. Yes, it is still pretty hard to create surnames as you just can't combine random kanji whenever you want. But I hopefully this little guide will help you understand some more about how surnames really work and what some common kanji actually means. http://www.sljfaq.org/afaq/names-for-people.html See Also References Category:Help